School leaders should ‘enable and ennoble the faculty’
By Christina Gray
Five new Catholic school principals are off to a focused start to the first school year after a four-day Catholic school leadership retreat led by the Department of Catholic Schools.
The New School Leader Academy held July 1-3 included incoming principals of Stella Maris Academy, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School and Notre Dame des Victoires School in San Francisco, Nativity School in Menlo Park and St. Patrick School in Larkspur. Discussions included theoretical, liturgical and practical aspects of Catholic school leadership. A fourth and final day was held Aug. 5.
“Our principals will be superb, faithful leaders, excellent instructional coaches, and understand how to market and advance their schools,” Carol Grewal, associate superintendent of governance and operational vitality, told Catholic San Francisco.
The Department of Catholic Schools led by superintendent Chris Fisher designed the program, which began on the first day of the Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit at St. Patrick Seminary & University, July 1-4.
Principals began their day in a morning session separate from the summit schedule. Ryan Mayer, director of the office of Catholic identity assessment & formation, highlighted a paragraph from a document issued by the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education for discussion.
“Often, what is perhaps fundamentally lacking among Catholics who work in a school is a clear realization of the identity of a Catholic school and the courage to follow all the consequences of its uniqueness” (“The Catholic School,” 66).
School leaders joined other summit participants in the afternoon for Mass and vespers, a plenary session and fellowship.
The following day when the retreat decamped to the chancery offices in San Francisco, Fisher spoke to the new principals about the mission of Catholic schools, building school culture and the importance of hiring faculty formed to that mission.
“A principal’s main job is to lead school culture,” he said. The culture should reflect the universal mission of Catholic education. School culture is formed “first and foremost” through the formation of faculty.
Fisher invoked St. Augustine in offering the premise that a teacher’s influence extends far beyond curriculum or specialized knowledge. “The first subject students learn is the teacher,” Augustine wrote. “Teachers offer themselves for imitation. This is the essence of what people call teaching.”
Hire mission-aligned faculty, articulate a shared vision (often), be the “head teacher,” own the logistics of the school and provide strong leadership that serves the faculty, he advised.
It is vital to “enable and ennoble” the teachers in your school, he said.
“Enable them to do the work of teaching and accomplish the goals of your school,” he said. “Ennoble them in that pursuit to make them know that they are contributing something important to the life of their students, to the life of your community and culture, but ultimately, to the life of the Church.”
Christina Gray is the lead writer for Catholic San Francisco.
Photo: New principals gathered at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University on July 1 with the Department of Catholic Schools (Francisco Valdez, Archdiocese of San Francisco).
